September 29, 2008

The Real Iron Man?

Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy successfully crossed the English Channel last week by flying across it with a jet pack strapped to him.

The 22-mile, 12-minute flight went off without a hitch, and Rossy even had enough gas left over to perform spectacular feats of aerial acrobatics at the white cliffs of Dover.

Rossy, who flies commercial flights for Swiss Air, has spent years perfecting his jet-pack technology. He plans to fly across Europe at some point. You can now take "fiction" out of the term "science fiction" when it comes to referring to jet packs.

Pump up the volume

Since when do tracks on "Guitar Hero" sound better than the songs on an actual CD?

Well, apparently the songs on heavy metal band Metallica's new album, "Death Magnetic," suffer from heavy-handed distortion effects that clear up and jam on "Guitar Hero."

So now fans are clamoring for Metallica to re-release the album with the "Guitar Hero" tracks. There's even a YouTube video with side-by-side audio comparisons of the CD and Guitar Hero versions of the same song.

Victor Godinez of The Dallas Morning News said he wouldn't be surprised to see Metallica re-release the CD with the title, "Death Magnetic: The Guitar Hero.""It would probably be the first time a video game was headlined on an album by a major band, but probably not the last," he said.

What's next, paying a heap of money to a band to make an exclusive song just for a video game? Time will tell.

Busted!

Divya Narendra's been discovered on Facebook.com.

Maybe not an issue for the millions already on the site, but for Narendra, it's ironic.

Narendra's company, ConnectU, started by himself, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a little over a year ago alleging he stole their ideas to create the hugely popular social networking site.

While the lawsuit drags on, Narendra quietly created a profile for himself on the site.

Entries on his wall contain posts such as "Um, was this part of a legal agreement or something? I never thought I'd see the day ..."

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Now that's a bright idea!

Consider yourself good with lighting? An electrician in the making? Or maybe just a Thomas Edison wannabe?

Well, any or all of the above could qualify you to win $10 million.

And in these tough economic times, that could go a long way.

The Department of Energy has a competition going to create a new generation of light bulbs, and the winner of the department's L prize would go to the company that creates a viable, solid-state LED replacement for the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb.

There are bunches of criteria that's probably Greek to most people, but if you know what you're doing and want to help in the quest to make more efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly light bulbs, get to the drawing board.

- From wire and online reports It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a rocket man!

Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy successfully crossed the English Channel last week by flying across it with a jet pack strapped to him.

The 22-mile, 12-minute flight went off without a hitch, and Rossy even had enough gas left over to perform spectacular feats of aerial acrobatics at the white cliffs of Dover.

Rossy, who flies commercial flights for Swiss Air, has spent years perfecting his jet-pack technology. He plans to fly across Europe at some point. You can now take "fiction" out of the term "science fiction" when it comes to referring to jet packs.

Since when do tracks on "Guitar Hero" sound better than the songs on an actual CD?

Well, apparently the songs on heavy metal band Metallica's new album, "Death Magnetic," suffer from heavy-handed distortion effects that clear up and jam on "Guitar Hero."

So now fans are clamoring for Metallica to re-release the album with the "Guitar Hero" tracks. There's even a YouTube video with side-by-side audio comparisons of the CD and "Guitar Hero" versions of the same song.

Victor Godinez of The Dallas Morning News said he wouldn't be surprised to see Metallica re-release the CD with the title, "Death Magnetic: The Guitar Hero.""It would probably be the first time a video game was headlined on an album by a major band, but probably not the last," he said.

What's next, paying a heap of money to a band to make an exclusive song just for a video game? Time will tell. Divya Narendra's been discovered on Facebook.com.

Maybe not an issue for the millions already on the site, but for Narendra, it's ironic.

Narendra's company, ConnectU, started by himself, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a little over a year ago alleging he stole their ideas to create the hugely popular social networking site.

While the lawsuit drags on, Narendra quietly created a profile for himself on the site.

Entries on his wall contain posts such as "Um, was this part of a legal agreement or something? I never thought I'd see the day ..."

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Consider yourself good with lighting? An electrician in the making? Or maybe just a Thomas Edison wannabe?

Well, any or all of the above could qualify you to win $10 million.

And in these tough economic times, that could go a long way.

The Department of Energy has a competition going to create a new generation of light bulbs, and the winner of the department's L prize would go to the company that creates a viable, solid-state LED replacement for the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb.

There are bunches of criteria that probably are Greek to most people, but if you know what you're doing and want to help in the quest to make more efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly light bulbs, get to the drawing board.